Silent Vows
by Wendish
Summary: While B&B are on their honeymoon, Angela needs to complete on last errand. (Not a wedding spoiler)


_Created October 2013 - ____I don't own these characters as made famous by the TV show, Bones. Love them anyway. All the rest that follows is my feeble attempt to keep time in between broadcasts and Razztaztic, Threesquares, and Covalent Bond postings._

A/N 10/22/2013 - It's good to be a Bones' fan today, and every other day, huh? For those who have not seen the wedding episode, this story gives nothing away. It's just a little thank you to the universe for the little TV show that could.

* * *

"Raaaaaaaaawwwwr!" Parker bellowed as he stalked down the hall - arms outstretched like Frankenstein - in search of chubby-cheeked victims.

Christine shrieked with obvious delight. Her fight or flight response had short-circuited as she ran in place - paralyzed - too equivalently happy and frightened to move.

Michael Vincent, on the other hand, had abruptly darted towards the kitchen, wailing like a siren in search of the safety between his father's legs.

Parker growled as he scooped up his sister, tugging her top up to apply an onslaught of raspberries to her bare belly. Christine howled with laughter with glee, so overwhelmed with joy that she occasionally forgot to breathe.

Guilty that he had abandoned his favorite playmate, and in serious distress at the noises that she was making, Michael pleaded with his father for a rescue attempt. "Dodgie...Ti-Teen! Dodgie! Ti-teen! Dodgie..."

"Paaaaaarrrrker!" Angela whined as she continued her ascent up the stairs. "They're just babies, Sweetie. Play nice!"

Defeated, Parker bent forward to release his baby sister (who was not at all interested in stopping), but was halted by his approaching uncle, who had picked up his son to confront the Park-Monster.

"Angie, they're fine!"

Hodgins pressed his lips to Michael Vincent's cheek as he whispered "It's Parker, Buddy, they're having fun, see?"

Dubious, Michael watched as Christine giggled while shmushing her brother's cheeks in her hand. Parker shifted Christine onto his right hip, and extended his left arm, motioning to Michael to join the fun fray.

With an assisted lean from his Dodgie, Michael abandoned his lingering fears and lunged into Parker's arms. With a quick look back for reassurance from his Dad, Michael smiled shyly before patting his faux-cousin's head. "Barker." he whispered. "Fun."

And with that, and a nod from Uncle Hodgins, Parker pratt-fell onto the floor, the quick gravity change causing the two toddlers to gasp and giggle. The trio rolled around on the floor, Big Brother tickling the tinier two while Hodgins cheered "dog pile Parker" on his way back to the kitchen. He wanted to further investigate the herbs growing on Brennan's kitchen window ledge so that he could recommend some hybrid alternatives.

Angela shook her head at the commotion downstairs as she moved towards Brennan's bedroom to hang the very special dry-cleaned items. She patted the newly laundered gown and tuxedo worn just a week ago, as she reminisced about the wonderful day that she had orchestrated for her two friends.

As one of her last maid (fuck that 'matron' shit) of honor duties, she and the motely crew had stopped by the Brennan-Booth residence so that she could return the perfect attire worn by the two perfect people to the home that represented their love and partnership perfectly.

She hung the suit and the dress side-by-side in the back of the expansive, Narnia-like shared closet. Upon entry, she had snickered because Booth's wardrobe was triple in size to Brennan's. _He was such a chick_.

Yet like the couple themselves, Mr. and Mrs. Booth's wedding attire stood out and alone on the back bar.

Angela sighed, in that moment in love with the couple that the ensemble represented. In love with the dream life they would continue to lead. And, in love with her incredibly raucous family that bellowed from below. A family that she would not have were it not for a certain acerbic scientist and her irrationally gorgeous mate.

Angela was about to turn off the closet light when something caught her eye on Booth's tuxedo bag. The cleaners had attached another little bag to the tuxedo.

_Booth must have left something in his pocket._

Angela rolled her eyes. _Booth and the stuff he carries around with him. What are the odds that it's a stupid pair of dice or a lizard? _she chuckled to herself as she reached for the very light bag. Exiting the closet, she frowned as she wondered at what could be so lightweight that was worth the dry cleaner's saving?

She closed the closet door and peeked in at the contents of the bag.

_Booth's discarded vows_.

In concert with every fiber of her being, she felt her hearth throb at the thoughtfulness of the "save". She would definitely have to make a call back to Mr. Noh with her appreciation.

She turned over the bag in her hand, not at all guilty with second thoughts that she should not read them. Number one: nothing could compare with the words that he had chosen to say from his heart on their wedding day. Number two: this is part of what she did for a living, after all - recovering lost communications. And Number three: Who was she kidding? She was their biggest shipper, ever. Getting yet another glimpse at Mr. Stoic and Brooding being romantic?

_Try and stop her_.

She sat at the edge of the bed, smiling at the blue index cards. _Booth's stupid index cards. _It never failed to annoy her that the FBI's head of major crimes sauntered around solving crimes with one of the best solve rates in FBI history, using this 1910-technology and naked-lady pens.

But, as her bestie had coined so long ago, this quirk made Studly more than 'Studly', it made him..._Boothy_.

She pieced the three cards back together, and read the words:

_Bones: (strikethrough)._

_Temperance: (strikethrough)._

_Bones:_

_Mom is right. You have made me whole._

_You once told me a story about Plato and soul mates, and how he believed that humans were really made up of double the body parts and they got split up because Zeus was mad._

_ [wait to be corrected or be teased about my PlayDoh joke] _

_The point you were trying to explain was that Plato thought people spent lives trying to complete themselves. Then, I told you that it was ridiculous. But, Bones that night, and so many other nights before, I wanted to tell you that you were the other half of me. _

_That I wanted to grab you to me and kiss you and tell you that you were it for me and that I would take care of you forever. That having you in my life helped to lift the burden of my past actions. That having you next to me made me strive to be a better man. _

_Well, I kinda did tell you that not so soon thereafter, but I scared the (shit? BeJesus? crap?) out of you. And, in retrospect, I know what I did wrong. I forgot to mention that I loved you, Temperance. _

_You see Bones, for years, with every look, every conversation, every argument - I stupidly thought that I had ended each sentence with the phrase 'I love you,' not realizing that my very literal scientist hadn't heard me actually SAY these words. _

_Well, I've learned a thing or two since then, and when I finally did say it, you heard me, and I've been the happiest guy on Earth ever since._

_Temperance, I will spend every day of the rest of my life saying those words out loud to you - I love you, Bones. I love you with every breath that I take. Never doubt that for one minute._

_I will spend the rest of my life whole because of you, and I promise to do the same for you. You are my partner. My best friend, the mother of my little girl, and now my wife. But most of all you are my Bones._

_I love you._

Angela jumped, startled by the fall of a tear onto the index card. "Oh, Studly." she sniffled, standing up to get a tissue from the dresser. While nothing would eclipse his spoken vows, she was touched by these words too. She regretted the day that she had implied that Seeley Booth was a romantic of a narrow kind.

She didn't want Bren to find the vows in case Booth elected to share them with her on a special occasion. She concluded that she would leave them on Booth's desk in his Man Cave.

Heading down the hallway, she noted that the house had become relatively quiet, but she could hear her husband from the back yard. Peeking out of Christine's window, she noticed that the party had moved outside, as Christine and Michael seemed to be re-enacting the throwing of rose petals at the wedding - but with leaves - while Parker and Hodgins examined an unsuspecting insect on one of the lawn chairs. She sighed as she continued on to the Man Cave.

* * *

It had been a good 20 minutes since he had seen his wife, so Hodgins headed back into the house to get an estimated time of departure for when they would be headed out. He was on his way up the stairs to Dr. B's room before he caught the sound of his wife sobbing from a back room.

"Ange?" Hodgins called out warily.

"I'm here" she squeaked out weakly.

Worried at her tone, Hodgins rushed to the Man Cave. The door was ajar, but he pushed it open to find his wife leaning on the wall opposite Booth's desk, surrounded by a smattering of index cards.

Bawling.

"Babe, what's wrong?" he rushed to kneel her side immediately. "Are you OK?"

Angela's sobbed, her bottom lip quivering as she regarded her husband for a moment. Then suddenly she grabbed his face with both hands and planted a passionate kiss on his lips. Hodgins felt his legs give below him as he fell into the awkwardly positioned kiss.

Coming up for air, he cleared his throat, stroking her hair. "So...you're okay, then?" his voice cracked.

"Oh, Hodgie! I _love_ love." she sighed. "And this." she gestured to the 40-50 index cards that she discovered when she entered the Man Cave. "this is all Booth's love for Bren."

Hodgins surveyed the splay of index cards, immediately recognizing Booth's handwriting, and the last time that he had seen Booth with one of the colors strewn. "What are these? Drafts of his vows?"

Angela nodded, focused on the white card in her hand. "Yes and no. The white cards are note cards from cases and the blue ones." she took a deep breath "the blue ones are drafts. He's been writing about her on the back of his case cards, Jack. _For years_!"

She waved the card in her hand. "Remember the conjoined twins?" she queried. "He wrote that she sleeps on the right side of the bed and, and, and that she really loved the circus! And there are lists! Her favorite teas, movies to watch with her, meals to prepare for her. Lectures that she may be interested in attending. And, really inappropriate caricatures of Bren's boyfriends! Notes on her favorite vegan restaurants, books that she's mentioned. And tons of doodles of Bones." she snickered. "And! He wrote down all of our birthdays. You, me, the Squinterns. Even _Zach's birthday_...and he _HATES_ Zach!" she resumed her crying.

Hogdins smiled as he slid back on the wall beside her to pull her to him. He snickered, still amused that his super-sleuth wife had never found his collection of Montenegro mementos.

"And look at this!" she swiped a blue card from the floor. "In this draft, he compares Bren to this house! Sounds silly, right? But it's so perfect!"

Hodgins looked at the card:

_Bones, I know it sounds weird and I know you hate metaphors, but you are my home in so many ways that our house literally represents you, represents us._

_ Like you, when I found our house, it was empty, a shell. But I saw something in it and I rashly took a gamble and went for it without thinking about your reaction. Still, I was unsure about it until I got your agreement, your buy in._

_It's just like us, Bones. Until you bought in to the possibility of us, nothing else mattered. _

_With a lot of help from our friends and family, we've built us, and we've built a home. And like our relationship, we've filled it with everything that makes you, you and makes me, me. And it works. It's open, and loving and beautiful..._

Hodgins grinned at the words. "He could write greeting cards."

"Oh Hodgie! Don't be so cynical" she fussed.

"I'm not!" he defended. "Dr. B is worthy of all of these words and all of Booth's love. They're both very lucky." his eyes twinkled. "Not as lucky as me though."

Angela wiped her eyes and sweetly kissed her husband again.

"I hope that he shares these with her. It's so romantic." she wished, cleaning up the cards.

Hodgins stood up, and then helped her stand up as well. "Angie..." he warned.

She placed the cards back on Booth's desk as she had found them, and the discarded vows on the seat of his chair. "I will be good, Hodgins." she sighed. "But you know, you're going to have to write me some more of your awful Arastoo-inspired poems as a romance fix" she threatened.

Hodgins smiled "Angela blah-blah-blah Pearly Gates Montenegro Hodgins, you are like the swings from our first date. You are playful and free and I love to jump on you!" he waggled his eyebrows. She pecked his lips.

"No two sentence freestyling, Bug Boy" she warned. "I want a sonnet."

"Very well, Mrs. Hodgins! But first let's go save our kid from Parker-induced trauma..."


End file.
